Wedding Toast Jokes For Laughs
Jan telling jokes to 500+ education people this week
In previous blogs
I’ve talked about using topical jokes to bring in some current humor, and I’ve got a great example of it. I’ve started writing topical jokes for a wedding toast website for the best man: http://www.thebestmanspeech.
Topical jokes
make the event fresh. While many wedding toasts focus on stuff about the bride and groom, if you can include humor about Lance Armstrong losing his medals or Obama winning the election it freshens up the standard wedding toasts. That way no one will think that you borrowed the speech from your granddad’s dad’s dad’s dad.
Topical jokes
also make you look more spontaneous. No one wants to look like they had to spend hours and hours writing a toast. Many of us do have to do that, but you don’t want people to know it. So you look like a genius if you just popped off with something you just thought up about this week’s news stories. And by the way, you don’t have to spend hours and hours writing a speech – join this site and get original speech contact fast!
In addition, topical jokes
are a great way to connect with everyone. While some people might know that Tom the groom used to work as a talking Christmas tree at the mall during the holidays, there are probably many others who don’t. So your jokes about Tom sitting on pointy tree needles might fall flat for a good part of the room. Whereas you’d have to be living in a cave to not know that Obama was re-elected. Okay, even the Taliban living in caves knows that!
And finally, topical jokes
are a fun way to get your news. Okay, considering the above point, maybe not everyone knows that Lance Armstrong lost his medals, but they DO know who he is. And so you can be educating and entertaining people at the same time. Millions of people cite Jon Stewart and the Daily Show with being their main source of news. Enough said.
Now with those reasons for using topical jokes,
how does one connect topical jokes with a wedding? Well for me, one way is that I make a list of what the news story has in common with a marriage. For example, with Lance Armstrong, I came up with things like “riding a bike/doing something repetitive” “winning medals/winning a bride” “cheating and losing medals/cheating and losing a bride”.. ahhh, the last one hit home and there goes the joke. With Obama, I took a quote he said about the future, and I made a reference to the future of a newly wed couple.
Check out this site with topical wedding toast jokes:
http://www.thebestmanspeech.
So enjoy the Best Man jokes and website. Use this site and you’ll be the hit of the wedding . . . .and you didn’t even have to spring for the open bar.
Have a great weekend!
Jan
Using Stock Jokes
wearing stock costumes on halloween is always okay
Two guys walk into a bar. .
And find that this is not funny. Okay, should you use stock jokes, or as we comedians call them HACK jokes? I’ve talked about joke formulas like “he’s so big” or “top reasons why. . .” and I think that’s okay. You get recognition and familiarity, people know a joke is coming, and audiences like those familiar, funny lines. Plus it’s easy. Just plug in your new nouns/subjects, and you’ve got a new joke.
But what I’m talking about
Is using a joke that’s been told over and over and over again. I saw a comedian’s website recently and he used an old, old joke on there, and I thought it was a bad idea. For him I thought it was a bad idea because, well, he’s a comedian and he should showcase his original humor. But for non-comedians who just want to kick off a talk with a joke or sprinkle a few in their speeches, my advice would also be “don’t do it.” You risk part of your audience having already heard the joke, so they think you’re a thief and/or unoriginal, and another part of your audience probably will hear the joke sometime, and then they’ll think of you as a thief and/or unoriginal.
We’re finding too much
off the internet these days, and you have to be careful. Plus using hack jokes is a form of stealing if you’re not giving credit to the person who wrote it. And remember, someone did write the joke – it’s just impossible in some cases to trace back the comedy material. But stock jokes didn’t just materialize out of the blue like suddenly seeing a bug in your house and you have no idea where it came from or how it got there – but I digress.
The word HACK
by the way means to “cut, chop, slash, lacerate, scythe, hew, slice” which is what you’re doing to your credibility when you use a “standard” joke. It reminds me of the time I was watching this motivational speaker, and he was going to play a video. He asked the room who has seen the “fish video” and ½ of the room raised their hands. I thought, wow, why is he playing that thing that’s been on the internet forever??
I guess there’s a fine line
Between stock jokes and internet jokes that get passed around. I do my fair share of passing jokes around, but I don’t put them into my act and try to pass them off as mine.
So be weary
of hack jokes and instead of using them just be original with your own jokes. You’ll have more fun and feel better when people compliment you on your sense of humor.
Jan
Making A Living At Comedy Writing
I specialize in comedy shows and humor keynotes
for corporations and associations, and that’s where I make the bulk of my living. It’s fun and it not only allows me to do a job I love but I also get to meet lots of people. But in addition to performing comedy, as you may know, I also do some freelance comedy writing – hence the blog, and I get asked by writers, and wannabe writers if you can actually make a living at comedy writing. Well, yes and no – in my opinion.
If you’re on staff at a TV show or late night show,
you can make a great living at it. I’ve got friends who have and are doing that, and the money is very good. As a freelancer, you can also probably make a living at it. I think if I really, really worked hard to drum up business, I could probably pay my mortgage with the money I could make at comedy writing. It most likely wouldn’t be near what I’m making now, but I could probably live on it. I don’t push to pick up more freelancing gigs because I just don’t have the time, so I have to pick and choose what I want to do and who I want to work with. But yes, it’s possible to make a living at it.
taking a break from comedy to hike the Grand Canyon
Now, with that said,
if you’re a new writer or someone who doesn’t have a reputation for comedy writing, then you may eventually be able to support yourself with comedy writing, but not immediately. You need to build a reputation for it or you’ll starve. I’ve been doing this comedy thing full time for 17+ years, and I’ve got a great sample of my writing out there – my act. So people contact me to write for them. I also write on a pay-per-joke basis with no obligation to buy, because I can afford to do that (plus I really want people to be happy with the jokes).
If you’re new to comedy writing,
you might have a harder time getting stated, but here’s some ideas if you want to make a living at comedy writing:
- do it on a pay-per-joke basis. . .that way people will take a chance on you
- record or get a comedian to record jokes you’ve written and get them out on the internet for others to see
- contact local radio stations – DJs are using up material every day, so they may be willing to take a look at your jokes
- go to comedy clubs and mingle with the comedians – I am against comedians paying for jokes, but if you want to get some first clients, then go for it. There’s always some newbie comedian who is lazy enough to want to pay their way into the business
- contact speakers. I got some clients by watching speakers at events and then contacting them later to see if they wanted me to write for them. I first sat thru their speech and then gave them, for free, jokes that I wrote for them while they were on stage.
- put up a website with samples of jokes you’ve written.
- When you’ve written for someone, get a testimonial and let others know how happy your client is. Some people may not want to give you one because they don’t want to let the world know that they don’t write their own material, but maybe if you promise to just use their initials, they’ll let you
Those are some ideas for comedy writing that will get you started. Good luck.
Jan
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